Best Moments on TV of 2020

At the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards, Netflix had the most nominations of any network. However, HBO went home with the most wins in one night. The reason was the success of Succession, which won Outstanding Drama Series, including a ton more. Jeremy Strong even won Outstanding Lead Actor. Yet, the big story of that night was Schitt's Creek, which won Outstanding Comedy Series. It received 15 nominations, which is record-breaking for a comedy. It also swept all seven major categories, which is the first for any series. It won all four acting categories. It won writing, directing and series overall. Another big story was HBO's Watchmen, which won Outstanding Limited Series. It went into the night with the most nominations of any show, which was 26. Regina King won Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series, which was her fourth Emmy.

She was one of a dozen Black actors to win that night. King's co-star in Watchmen was Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and he won Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series. Uzo Aduba won for her role in Mrs. America on FX. It was Aduba's third Emmy Award. Pop star, Zendaya won for her role in Euphoria on HBO. Zendaya is only the second Black person to win Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, and at age 24, she's the youngest winner in that category. Other Black winners include Maya Rudolph who won two acting awards that night, as well as Dave Chappelle, Eddie Murphy, Mahershala Ali, Laurence Fishburne, Ron Cephas Jones, Jasmine Cephas Jones and RuPaul.

Of course, it has to be noted that while many Black creatives were recognized at the Emmy Awards, there was a lack in Latin or Hispanic creatives, which was acknowledged in an article in People magazine. This is a shame because I've pointed out in several reviews that there has been a trend of TV shows that feature a predominantly Latin or Hispanic cast. One of my favorite shows featured a predominantly Latino cast, which was Gentefied on Netflix. Sandra Oh, Ramy Youssef and Shira Haas are arguably the only actors of Asian-descent to be recognized, which is way more than the Latin or Hispanic actors recognized. Also, no Native American or Indigenous people were recognized either. There aren't as many Native American actors that one could name off the top of your head as Latin or Hispanic actors. However, I will point out there are up-and-coming actors of Native American-descent who should be recognized, such as Booboo Stewart of Julie and the Phantoms on Netflix or Cody Christian of All American on CW.

Speaking of Emmy Awards, the 47th Daytime Emmy Awards happened earlier in the year. A Martinez is an Daytime Emmy Award winner who is of Native American-descent. He appeared briefly in 2020 on the Daytime Emmy winning series Days of Our Lives. NBC's Days of Our Lives was the only soap opera that didn't go into reruns as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Of those shows that did, eventually they came back, but, none incorporated the pandemic into their story lines, but arguably the one that had the best story lines was General Hospital. The introduction and integration of the character Cyrus Renault, played by Jeff Korber, has been one of the best story lines. The re-introduction of Nikolas Cassadine, as now played by Marcus Coloma, and his pairing with Maura West who plays Ava Jerome has been another of those best story lines.

In terms of story lines, one common theme I saw throughout the year was the continued push-back against the criminal justice system for how it treats certain people, particularly Black people. ABC aired a new series this year called For Life created by Hank Steinberg with executive producer 50 Cent. It was about a Black man who was falsely convicted. Netflix aired a documentary series called Trial 4, which was also about a Black man who was falsely convicted. Amazon Prime aired an anthology series called Small Axe, which its first installment was about a falsely charged group of Black people known as the Mangrove Nine. Hulu aired a comedy series called Woke, which was about a Black Lives Matter-type incident that occurs to a cartoonist. The Season 22 premiere of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit also addressed the issues between the Black community and the police. The Season 5 premiere of This Is Us took on the major Black Lives Matter issue of 2020, which was the death of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer. Season 7 of Black-ish also addressed the Black Lives Matter protests this year.

Other shows, particularly cop shows, have decided to tackle the Black Lives Matter issue because the George Floyd case was such a flashpoint. A lot of shows about first responders like police and paramedics also tackled the issue of COVID-19. In addition to This Is Us, which has its characters dealing with coronavirus, other NBC shows, such as Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, as well as the Chicago shows like Chicago Med and Chicago Fire all took on the coronavirus pandemic.

After some backlash about a year ago, Lifetime, Hallmark Channel and others started adding LGBTQ characters as the leads in their Christmas movies. The Christmas House (2020) became the first Hallmark movie to prominently feature a same-sex couple. The Christmas Setup (2020) became the first Lifetime, Christmas-themed movie to have a same-sex couple as the lead. Its two stars are Ben Lewis and Blake Lee who are a real-life, same-sex couple. Happiest Season (2020) became the first studio film that's Christmas-themed to have a same-sex couple as the lead too. It was meant as a theatrical release and not solely for television, but due to the pandemic, it went straight to Hulu.

Finally, something notable was that David Chang became the first celebrity to win $1 million at Who Wants To Be a Millionaire on November 29. If one doesn't know who David Chang is, he's a Korean-American restaurant owner. He owns a series of restaurants called Momofuku all over the world. Chang is also an Emmy-nominated host of the Netflix series Ugly Delicious (2019). It was cool to see Chang win. Now, on to my favorite TV programs of 2020!

Best TV Movie

BAD EDUCATION (HBO)
SMALL AXE: MANGROVE (Amazon Prime)
DISCLOSURE: TRANS LIVES ON SCREEN (Netflix)
ON THE RECORD (HBO Max)
UNBREAKABLE KIMMY SCHMIDT: KIMMY VS. THE REVEREND (Netflix)

Best New Series

FOR LIFE (ABC)
MRS. AMERICA (FX)
GENTEFIED (Netflix)
FEEL GOOD (Netflix)
MCMILLIONS (HBO)
EMERGENCE (ABC)
TIGER KING (Netflix)
STARGIRL (CW)
TRIAL 4 (Netflix)
OUTCRY (Showtime)
KARMA (HBO Max)

Best Returning Series

THE CROWN: SEASON 4 (Netflix)
THE GOOD FIGHT: SEASON 4 (CBS All Access)
CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM: SEASON 10 (HBO)
HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER: SEASON 6 (ABC)
RAMY: SEASON 2 (Hulu)
INSECURE: SEASON 4 (HBO)
HOMELAND: SEASON 8 (Showtime)
THIS IS US: SEASON 5 (NBC)
THE MANDALORIAN: SEASON 2 (Disney Plus)
AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.: SEASON 7 (ABC)
PATRIOT ACT WITH HASAN MINHAJ: VOL. 6 (Netflix)